From Autumn To Spring - Small - 12 months
For her series From Autumn till Spring, Nel Verbeke creates evocative design objects that in their layeredness refer to the amount of precipitation that fell in a delineated area during a defined period, using data and soil she collected specifically for this purpose. A process that allows her to relate the object to the history of an individual who lived in the selected place during the corresponding era, basing her choice for rain on the contemplative and melancholic thus mindful nature of a cloudy day. The small vase, perhaps sheltering the brief existence of a handpicked flower, is therefore in itself a relic, evoking reflections on the transience of our own presence, on the passing of days and years, on the progress of a life. Yet when placed upside down, the container acts as a bell jar under which a cherished object can be kept. Whereby a focal point manifests itself in a space, a physical representative of a memory that encloses and conceals another memory, unveiling its contents only when the moment to uncover it arrives.